GREY BEARD: Earthen jugs formerly used in public houses for drawing ale: they had the figure of a man with a large beard stamped on them.
Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811

Long known as Bellarmines and more recently as Bartmanns, Gray Beard bottles were being imported from Germany into England by the last quarter of the sixteenth century and were still arriving via Flanders as late as 1776. Gray Beards, characterized by their distinctive masks and many without, were the principal containers for bottled ale and wines until the development of a glass bottle industry in the mid-seventeenth century. Pint and quart sizes were the first to be replaced by glass, but the larger stoneware bottles were stronger than their glass counterparts and therefore retained their market share throughout much of the eighteenth century.

The bottles shown here suggest the range of available sizes. Neither piece can claim to portray the best of the Rhineland potters’ art, the finest examples of which dated to the second half of the sixteenth century before the mass- production of bottles began. Nevertheless, the multi-medallioned Gray Beard on the right has its place in the record books as arguably the largest surviving example of its period.